90 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[Bull. 197 



Table 17. — Reported estimates of the population of the Navajo Agency, all ages 

 and school age, dy State — 19S5, 1940, and 1945 ^ 



1 The data for these 3 years pertain to the fiscal years ending on June 30 of the year specified. The figures 

 in parentheses are my estimates, obtained on the assumption that the proportion of school-age to total 

 Navaho is equal to the proportion of school-age to total Indians as reported for the area specified. 



2 Bureau of Indian AtTairs, 1936, appendix tables 2 and 3. 



3 Bureau of Indian Affairs, 1940, statistical supplement tables 3 and 5. 

 « Bureau of Indian Affairs, 1945, statistical supplement tables 2 and 5. 



5 A total of 307 Navahos residing in Utah were reported with the Western Navajo Agency in Arizona. 



in a liigli proportion of the reported ages are themselves only approxi- 

 mations. In order to consider the internal consistency of the reported 

 population totals as given in table 16, it was necessary to determine 

 the number of school-age children in the corresponding areas. These 

 figures are recorded as given for those jurisdictions having populations 

 exclusively Navaho. For other jurisdictions, however, the reported 

 school-age populations include some Hopis, Paiutes, or Eastern Pueb- 

 los. In such areas, the number of school-age Navahos was estimated 

 on the assumption that the proportion of Navaho to total school-age 

 children in a given jurisdiction was equal to the proportion of total 

 Navaho to total Indians in that jurisdiction. 



When the estimated numbers of school-age Navahos are expressed as 

 percentages of the corresponding population totals, a number of in- 

 teresting features become apparent. To begin with, the school-age 

 population of the Southern Navajo Agency, whose total population 

 comprises about one-third of the total Navaho population, was re- 

 ported as exactly 25 percent of the total agency population until 1915. 

 Secondly, the estimated school-age population in the Western Navajo 

 Agency declined from 2,450 in 1911 to 1,409 in 1912, with no corre- 

 sponding change in the total population of the area. The proportion 

 of school age to total Navaho reported for this agency remains below 

 25 percent until 1925. An equally drastic revision in the opposite 

 direction is apparent in the reports of the Southern Agency for the 

 years 1915 and 1916. The estimated school-age population of this 

 agency was 2,500 in 1915, but it rose to 4,411 in 1916, so that the 

 proportion of school-age Navahos in this agency rises in a single year 

 from 25 to 37 percent. 



Since a number of existing age distributions for the. total Navaho 

 population indicate that the true proportion of school age to total 

 Navaho is close to 35 percent, it is apparent that the low proportions 

 reported for the above agencies reflect either a serious underestimate 



